This Is Venezuela’s ‘Miss Gay’ Beauty Contest Where Men Compete For The Crown

In Venezuela’s ‘Miss Gay’ competition, men with elaborate make-up, wigs and hour-glass figure, participated to show their skills. They call it ‘the art of transformation’. Though the Miss Gay contest is not conventional, it does has its beauty norms for contestants, some of which requires contestants to be younger than 37, stand at least 5 feet 6 inches tall, dress in evening wear and swimsuit competitions, etc.

To look perfect for the contest, participants went through painstaking preparations. Young men pinned wigs to their head, wrapped their waists with thick tape to create the hourglass figure, and used fake breasts for the perfect look.

Some even spent five hours to get ready.

Contestant Johan Martinez, wraps his torso with tape to tighten his waistlinenypost

The contestants were seen in 1950s-style cat-eye makeup, pink lips, and blonde pin curls. They performed song and dance numbers and dressed in costumes made by some of Venezuela’s top designers.

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And, the winner of Miss Gay Venezuela was Manuel Gonzalez, who competed as Argenis Gonzalez. The 24-year-old is a social media coordinator.

“It’s a great achievement to get to be the face of what is such a large community in Latin America, and even bigger in our country. And to have so many straight people cheering us on makes me feel really privileged,” he said.

Venezuela is known for its obsession for beauty contests; they are treated like a national sport in the country.

Young women from poor neighbourhoods pay huge sums to attend beauty schools with hopes of making it to the international pageant circuit. Young men compete in events that reward handsome faces and chiseled muscles.